Harrison Ford’s Failed Career as a Chef: 'Cut Part of My Finger off’ 

Harrison Ford.

He may be famous for the hundreds of movies he’s starred in over the past five decades, but Harrison Ford almost had a very different career trajectory.

The actor, 82, revealed during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, October 9, that he was once a chef.

Ford explained that he worked in a professional kitchen, “for relatively short periods of time, until they found out about me and fired me.”

In an anecdote shared with host Kimmel, 56, the Star Wars actor revealed what led to his exit.

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“My first job was, I cooked at a hospital. I don’t know what I told them but they gave me a knife and a bunch of carrots, and I cut this part of my finger off within minutes,” Ford said. “But the sew-your-finger-back-on department was right down the hall, and right after that was where they fire you for lying about [knowing how to cook].”

Ford also reminisced about other jobs he had prior to making it big in Hollywood.

“I was working on a yacht that was owned by the youngest bank president in Chicago at the time. He had a yacht and a boutonnière and he was a nice guy, but he didn’t know much about cooking,” he said. “But he was heir to the Swift meatpacking factory, so all I had to do was buy really expensive beef.”

Harrison Ford.

While Ford has left behind his career aspirations in the kitchen, his acting pursuits have been far more successful. Among his long list of credits are iconic roles in the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Blade Runner franchises.

However, the star admitted previously that it was tough to balance a successful, high-profile career as an actor with the demands and responsibilities of being a father.

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“If I’d been less successful, I’d probably be a better parent,” he told Esquire in an interview published in May, 2023.

He confessed in the interview that he had been “out of town, up my own ass, for most of my life” and said that “the more constant gardener is the better parent.”

Ford shares sons Ben, 58, and Willard, 55, with ex-wife Mary Marquardt, to whom he was married from 1964 to 1979; and welcomed son Malcolm, 37, and daughter Georgia, 34, with his late ex-wife, Melissa Mathison, who died in 2015. The Golden Globe nominee also raises son Liam with wife Calista Flockhart, who adopted the now 23-year-old before meeting Ford.